The State government has asserted that total funds released by the Central government under the Smart Cities project have been released to Warangal and there is no diversion whatsoever of funds.
Municipal Administration principal secretary Arvind Kumar said that the Smart City Mission was launched in June 2015 and Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) was included in the list of smart cities the next year. The Centre had so far released ₹196.4 crore under the smart cities project and the entire amount had been transferred accordingly.
“The entire amount has been released to Warangal by the government and no amount is diverted for any purpose other than the intended one,” he said. According to him, 63 works with an estimated ₹1,029.02 crore were planned under the project and works worth ₹46.67 crore were launched so far. Of these, ₹40.67 crore had been utilised for making payments.
The senior official, in a statement, asserted that more than sufficient funds were available with the Warangal corporation to meet expenditure up to May this year under the Smart City project. The initial delays in undertaking the actual works and issues like land acquisition, and preparation of detailed project reports, took their time as would be the case with any major projects.
With concerted efforts and close monitoring of the project activities, the works reached a take off stage and there was visible progress of works at present. In addition to the funds released by the Centre, the State government had released ₹109.29 crore as CM’s assurance funds and another ₹72.87 crore under Pattana Pragati. He averred that the government would meet the matching grant under the Smart Cities project once the works were executed and bills for the same were ready.
